1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a system of coding words from different languages, and especially for coding Chinese characters. The system of coding can be used in a small computer with a keyboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typewriters currently in use include manual mechanical typewriters and computer typewriters.
Manual mechanical typewriters, such as Chinese typewriters, can only type one type of character. Chinese character trays are adopted in a Chinese typewriter, with only one character typed for each stroke. The operator needs to understand and to be familiar with Chinese characters in order to operate the typewriter. The efficiency of this kind of typewriter is low and it is not easy to correct the typed characters. Although there is a gradual increase in the use of computer typewriters, they are limited to typing one language because of the difficulty of inputting different languages that do not use alpha-numerical characters.
The problem of low efficiency exists in Chinese typewriting and telecommunication at present. Computer Chinese typewriters adopt three different inputting modes. These are: (1) Pinyin entry mode, (2) the strokes of the character entry method and (3) using a four-digit code for each of the four corners of the character (four corner indexing method).
The Pinyin entry mode is used at present. The operator inputs the character according to the alphabet of Chinese Pinyin. However, due to the vast territory of China, there are many dialects and so the same Chinese character will have any different pronunciations.
For example:
______________________________________ Pinyin Chinese Standard Putonghua Pinyin Character (Mandarin) Cantonse Pinyin ______________________________________ wu meu yi yed di tei zhong zong bei beg shi xi ______________________________________
From the above examples, it can be seen that the pronunciation may be very different for the same character. Therefore, it is impossible for people who don't speak Putonghua to use this inputting mode. There is an additional problem for Putonghua-speaking people using this mode. That is, there are many homonyms with the same Pinyin and the character must be chosen from the number of different homonyms.
For example, in Chinese Pinyin, "fang" and "dong" represent different words.
"fang" represents PA0 "dong" represents
(altogether 14 words)
(altogether 14 words)
The small number of Pinyin's which represent only one character each are:
______________________________________ dei den fo gei hng kei lo me neng nin nou nuan ri sen seng shei tei zhei (altogether 18 words) ______________________________________
Among the ten thousands of Chinese Characters, a major portion of them have homonyms, the number of which varies from several to tens. Therefore the Chinese computer operator must select the character from the number of different homonyms. Since one Pinyin does not correspond to only one Chinese character, a problem also occurs in using Pinyin in telecommunication.
Data can also be input in accordance with the strokes of the characters. Chinese is classified by Bushou and words can be looked up according to the number of strokes of the Chinese characters. Certain strokes are assigned digital codes. The order of digits corresponds to the order of strokes. These digital codes are used for input of data into the Chinese computer. However, the order of strokes is not definite and different people may use a different order of strokes.
Take the character " " as an example, either " " or " " of the left portion can be written first. For the " ", either the " " on the left hand side or the " " in the middle may be written first. The order of strokes may be different for the same character and the code is therefore different, too. This is a problem of input according to the order of strokes.
The Chinese dictionary also adopts the system of classifying Chinese characters by 4-digit codes, stipulating that certain strokes correspond to certain digital codes. The code can be obtained according to the pattern of the character. The problem is that there are a number of repeated codes.
For example, under the code 4460, there are the characters:
consituting altogether 38 characters. Therefore, this system is not suitable for computer input or telecommunication.
Nowadays, Chinese telecommunication uses a 4-digit code representing one character. There is a Chinese code book, but the characters do not correspond with the codes in a logical way and so memorization of the codes is difficult. The Chinese code book is arranged in digital order from 0001 to 9999. The user has to look up the Bushou and the number of strokes before the character can be found.
______________________________________ Character Codes ______________________________________ 2101 6419 8217 5902 6056 6059 5960 ______________________________________
This system has been in use for decades. However, apart from the cable office, nobody wants to use this system of coding. An additional problem is the number of characters is also limited (at most 9999 characters).
An additional problem is that there are no portable Chinese typewriters or Chinese computers at present. The conventional type of typewriter or computer is desk-sized, with a very large host or keyboard. Personal computers and standard keyboards are not generally used. These typewriters and computers are to be used in offices and are not portable. Therefore, a portable Chinese typewriter is needed for use in Western Europe or Japan.